Self-Evaluation Differences Among Swedish Children and Adolescents Over a 30-Year Period

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Eva V. Hoff¹  Pirjo Birgerstam¹ 

[1] Department of Psychology, Lund University

关键词: self-concept;    self-evaluation;    children;    adolescents;    cohort differences;    generational differences;    gender differences;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00802

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

International research has found changes in how today’s young people evaluate themselves. The present Swedish research contributes with new findings by distinguishing different patterns of change in self-evaluation in two age groups. The study investigates generational and gender differences in five self-evaluation dimensions in two samples, one from 1983 ( N = 3052 10–16-year-old students) and one from 2013 ( N = 1303 10–18-year-old students). Three age groups were analyzed. The generational comparison for primary school ( ages 10–12 ) showed higher scores in 2013 than in 1983 for all five self-evaluation dimensions. Interactions between generation and gender were found for psychological well-being, relations to others, school competence evaluations, and the total score, demonstrating, in contrast to international research, a greater increase for girls than for boys. Noteworthy is that girls in primary school had higher scores in 2013. The generational comparison for lower secondary school ( ages 13–15 ) demonstrated higher scores for school competence, relational self-evaluations, and a total higher score in 2013. Interactions between generation and gender were found for total, physical, and psychological well-being evaluation scores, indicating an increase for boys and a decrease for girls in 2013 compared to 1983. The gender comparison for secondary school ( ages 16–18, 2013 ), showed gender differences for physical, psychological well-being, school competence evaluations, and for the total score to the advantage of boys. The study discusses changes in self-evaluation in relation to phenomena such as permissive child-rearing, decreased demands in school, increased self-enhancement behavior through social media, and narrow body ideals in today’s society. The study recommends that interventions directed toward groups with low self-evaluation scores should be considered.

【 授权许可】

CC BY